this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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Related:
Florida experiences a huge 1,150% surge in VPN use as Pornhub blocks access in response to age-verification law
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/vpn/florida-experiences-a-huge-1-150-percent-surge-in-vpn-use-as-pornhub-blocks-access-in-response-to-age-verification-law
Every YouTuber sponsored by nordvpn: ๐ค๐ค๐ค
I am really curious how long it will take them to ban VPNs.
It's impossible to ban all VPNs. And even if they somehow do it, you can get a VPS(virtual private server) from one of the cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure etc.) and host your own vpn service (OpenVPN, Algo, Vultr). You don't need to know a lot about it, there are step-by-step guides for it.
Companies have been compiling lists of which IP blocks are consumer Internet and which are cloud services. That's why some VPNs are now selling home internet IP VPNs.
Yup, I have my own VPS hosted in Oregon, so if worst comes to worst, I can route my traffic through there.
Just block every AS that belongs to a hoster.
They'll ultimately just have to cut off the US Internet from the rest of the world, right? As long as we can access other countries with more freedom, we can enjoy that level of freedom on the Internet. Or am I not understanding how the Internet works (entirely possible)?
If it makes you feel any better, you can rest assured that Capitol Hill doesn't know how the Internet works either.
" And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material." - Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens
I mean as far as metaphors go, it's really not that bad. It's visual and immediately understandable, and at least connected to the underlying thing it's describing (network traffic really does flow down a series of wries/cables that are functionally "tubes" of electrons or photons). Hell, people have been likening an internet connection to a "pipe" since at least the 90s (it was already a thing when I first got internet access in '95).
Sure the guy who said it was a dickbag, but I can think of a dozen worse analogies offhand.
To be fair, at this late date, the tubes analogy isn't that bad. I forget what point he was trying to make though.
He wasn't necessarily wrong, he was just an asshole. The context for the meme was a speech he gave in vehement opposition to a proposed bill amendment which would have codified net neutrality principles into law. The concept he was blundering through explaining was basically just an eli5 version of limited bandwidth. I send this message (or, in his parlance, this internet) from my phone to Lemmy. It travels through a series of tubes to get there. If the tubes are clogged with traffic, my message might have to get in line. And that's not fair to people who have the money to not be treated like a poor.
Fun fact, Senator Stevens was the longest serving senator to lose a bid for reelection, largely due the fact that he was embroiled in a big corruption scandal at the time. The conviction ended up being vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct though, and I didn't care to dive any deeper, but I'm inclined to believe he was a grifter. Rest in piss.
All valid points. Except for the one about not having to be treated like you're poor, but I think that one was made in jest.
I think he was trying to download something, it was taking time, and he thought the requested files are all in order in "the tubes". He had to wait for the other files to be delivered before his arrived.
...or something.
They'll most likely try to pull off a setup similar to China.
What you're not understanding is that Florida is just a single state out of 50
The people pushing these laws are hoping it will have the "California Effect."
Like when California says "Cars need to meet X emissions standards" so far makers just make cars everywhere meet those standards.
They are hoping that by making age verification a thing in a few states, it will become a thing everywhere.
This fails to realize that one, it's easy to geofence a state online (VPNs being anwork around). And Two, companies generally comply with California laws because, on the whole, California passes mostly positive limitations. It only makes the cars and world better if they all meet the better emissions standards. Blocking porn like this, is a net negative.
Also, on the subject of kids accessing porn. They are going to do it anyway, anyone thinking otherwise is oblivious to the world, and two, it's not up to the state to nanny this shit, it's up to the parents.
No, companies generally comply with California laws because California is a massive market. Companies don't, on the whole, operate on what is mostly positive for society according to a specific flavor of progressive.
Companies operate on what is most profitable, and selling to California is usually good for profits, while running a separate production line just for California usually isn't worth it. So if the regulations aren't too expensive to meet, they'll just switch the whole production over to meet California law because that minimizes costs and maximizes sales. The same kind of thing also happens with Texas, for much the same reason - especially with textbooks.
When it comes to emissions laws, car co usually build a range just for California. It's not hard to slate a few days just for a different exhaust.
I agree with all of that. What I don't agree with is blaming the entirety of the US for this policy. This is one dumbass state, doing a dumbass thing. The UK passed a similar law and I'd be just as wrong if I shit talked the rest of Europe for it.
As of January 2025:
This is not just "Oh Florida is just being quirky again" this is systematic.
The UK vs EU and the states vs the USA is not apples to apples. As I understand it though, we're actually approaching 20 US states requiring such verification. Iowa is trying to pass something similar. This is a trend across the country, which is why I generalized the USA.
https://www.ipvanish.com/blog/us-age-verification-laws/
Some US states already have more restrictive abortion laws than Saudi Arabia, so why not Internet laws too.